THE PHONE CALLS usually follow something embarrassing. Paul Konerko fell on his face running out a ball in Toronto last week, and Aaron Rowand hit the speed dial on his cell phone. Rowand swung at a Tim Wakefield knuckleball this spring and it hit his elbow, and . . .
"I got a few phone calls that day," Rowand said last night.
Last night was about Jim Thome's return to the town he once owned.
The way Aaron Rowand owns Chicago, right now.
Yes, right now.
As the Phillies prepared their interview room for the inevitable Thome news conference, Rowand stood in a hallway behind the home dugout and watched the crowd in front of him swell. Local media guys, Chicago media guys, all probing the what-ifs of then, and of now.
Two autumns ago, Aaron Rowand won a World Series with the Chicago White Sox, chasing down balls in centerfield as he did for the Phillies last night, smashing into walls as he has for the Phillies, providing a leadership presence that is as easy to identify as it is hard to define.
"I think Aaron Rowand still feels like he wears a White Sox uniform," White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said the other day, but the corollary to that might be more true. One writer told Rowand he was a "mythical" figure in Chicago. "I don't think that's the case," he said, so it was downgraded to "cult" by another Sox scribe.
"It's flattering," Rowand said finally. "You hear, 'Hey, that guy's a great hitter.' Or 'that guy's a great centerfielder.' The ultimate compliment anybody's ever given me in my entire career is, 'Hey, I really like watching the way that guy plays.' And when people say that to me, I can't thank them enough."
It is part of why he has a cult there, and a smaller one here. Beyond the .319 average, beyond the career year he is threatening to have as free agency approaches, Rowand is one of those rare guys who seem to forge a team, the way Terry Pendleton did when he left the Cardinals and joined the Braves. You liked his bat and his glove was adequate, but Pendleton also seemed to produce a consistency of play by others.
Some among the Phillies brass believe the loss of Rowand last season sabotaged their postseason chances more than any other factor. Two seasons removed from the trade, many in Chicago believe the Sox' troubles would be zapped if they could just re-obtain him.
